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Man faces charges after wrecking stolen truck

Stolen truck is wrecked: A Chevrolet Silverado pick up lies on its top after being wrecked on Highway 309 in Paris last week. A 24-year-old man is facing numerous felony and misdemeanor charges in connection with the incident. The wreck took place shortly after 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 27.

Joshua Keith Farnam, 24, of Skate Rink Road near Subiaco, is facing eight felony charges and nine misdemeanor charges in connection with the wreck of a stolen truck on Highway 309 in Paris on Wednesday, Nov. 27, according to Paris Police Department and Arkansas State Police incident reports.

Farnam, who was driving the truck which was reported stolen on Sunday, Nov. 24 from a Paris residence, was airlifted to Mercy Hospital in Fort Smith following the accident, which was reported shortly after 3:30 p.m. Drivers and passengers of two other vehicles involved in the accident were reported “possibly” or not injured, according to reports. Farnam has since been released from the hospital.

Farnam is facing felony charges of fleeing, six charges counts of aggravated assault and theft by receiving, along with misdemeanor charges of reckless driving, failure to yield or stop, three charges of improper passing, driving left of the center line, having no liability insurance and not using a seat belt.

The incident began when a Paris Police Department officer spotted a 1994 Chevrolet Silverado pick up that “appeared to have just been painted,” according to incident reports. The officer states in his report that he could see the bottom part of the license plate which read “72 SMY.” The officer states in his report that “those numbers were part of the tag numbers on a stolen vehicle report” he took on the morning of Sunday, Nov. 24.

The officer turned his unit around and caught up with the truck at the intersection of South Cherry and East Academy streets. He got behind the truck and saw the tag numbers which read “572 SMY.” He had the police department dispatcher run those tags and confirmed it was the stolen pick up.

As the truck was being driven west on East Maple Street, the officer turned on his lights and the driver of the truck accelerated, turned south onto South Elm and ran a stop sign, according to reports. The driver of the truck moved over into the northbound lane of traffic to pass three vehicles, according to the incident report, forcing two vehicles off the road to avoid a collision, according to the incident report.

The truck driver then shifted back into the southbound lane before moving again into the northbound lane of traffic, where he forced another vehicle off the road, according to the incident report. Then, the pick up truck driver straddled the double-yellow line in the center of the highway in an attempt to pass between two vehicles, a small car traveling north and a white SUV moving south. The pick up truck then sideswiped the SUV, forcing it off the road. The pick up truck bounced off the white SUV and then struck the smaller car “almost head on,” according to incident reports.

The driver of the pick up then lost control, traveled about 200 feet off the road surface on the western side. The pick up truck flipped several times before Farnam was ejected.

The pick up truck is also suspected to have been on the scene of a residential burglary on Nov. 24, according to police department incident reports.